It's reality vs. fantasy at NY cannibalism trial

FILE - In this Oct. 25, 2012, file courtroom drawing, Federal Defender Julie Gatto requests bail for her client, New York City Police Officer Gilberto Valle, right, at Manhattan Federal Court in New York. The FBI claims its analysis found that 40 of Valle’s emails and chats were evidence he wanted to abduct, torture and eat women. But an agent also testified on Wednesday, Feb. 27, 2013 at Valle’s federal trial that there were thousands of others the FBI concluded were mere fantasy, even thou
— AP

FILE - In this Oct. 25, 2012, file courtroom drawing, Federal Defender Julie Gatto requests bail for her client, New York City Police Officer Gilberto Valle, right, at Manhattan Federal Court in New York. The FBI claims its analysis found that 40 of Valle’s emails and chats were evidence he wanted to abduct, torture and eat women. But an agent also testified on Wednesday, Feb. 27, 2013 at Valle’s federal trial that there were thousands of others the FBI concluded were mere fantasy, even thou
/ AP

This undated photo submitted into evidence by Assistant Federal Defender Julia L. Gatto shows Gilberto Valle with his daughter. Valle is accused of conspiracy to kidnap a woman and unauthorized use of a law enforcement database that prosecutors say he used to help build a list of potential targets. Gatto tried to soften the image of her client by showing jurors pictures of a uniformed Valle and the coupleís 1-year-old daughter, a moment that caused the wife on the witness stand and eventually the officer at the defense table 30 feet away to cry out amid sobs. (AP Photo/Assistant Federal Defender Julia L. Gatto)— AP

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This undated photo submitted into evidence by Assistant Federal Defender Julia L. Gatto shows Gilberto Valle with his daughter. Valle is accused of conspiracy to kidnap a woman and unauthorized use of a law enforcement database that prosecutors say he used to help build a list of potential targets. Gatto tried to soften the image of her client by showing jurors pictures of a uniformed Valle and the coupleís 1-year-old daughter, a moment that caused the wife on the witness stand and eventually the officer at the defense table 30 feet away to cry out amid sobs. (AP Photo/Assistant Federal Defender Julia L. Gatto)
/ AP

NEW YORK 
A defense lawyer has resumed his attack on the government's claims that a New York police officer conspired with Internet friends to kidnap, kill and eat women.

The lawyer, Robert Baum, directed an FBI agent Thursday morning to what he portrayed as arbitrary decisions by investigators about whether various online chats were real or fantasy.

Baum highlighted the fact that two nearly identical Internet exchanges between Officer Gilberto Valle (VAL'-ee) and alleged co-conspirators were classified by the FBI differently. One was considered to be criminal evidence; the other wasn't.

Valle has been held without bail since his October arrest on charges of conspiring to kidnap women, including his wife, and illegally accessing a law enforcement database.

If convicted, he could be sentenced to life in prison.

THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. Check back soon for further information. AP's earlier story is below.

In the middle of one of his thousands of Internet conversations about cannibalism, Gilberto Valle paused and claimed he'd never really do it.

"I just like pushing the envelope," he wrote to another man.

The remark demonstrated the government's challenge of explaining to a jury how they separated flesh-eating fantasy from reality at the New York City police officer's kidnapping conspiracy trial in federal court in Manhattan.

The defense went on the attack Wednesday, attempting to show that the FBI arbitrarily built its case on roughly 40 emails and chats that agents deemed real evidence of the 28-year-old Valle's plot to abduct, torture and eat women - even though the missives are largely indistinguishable from those the same analysis dismissed as role play.

On cross-examination in federal court, FBI agent Corey Walsh confirmed that authorities had written off one message about a real 18-year-old who's a witness in the case as fantasy, even though another message with nearly identical wording was viewed as a real threat against her.

The woman was "one of the most desirable pieces of meat I've ever met," Valle wrote.

The agent also conceded the entire batch of emails had running themes: Valle discussing how to cook women, how much it would cost to abduct them and which women would make good targets. Whether found to be real or fake, the emails contained some of the same names of real women and their photographs.

"Isn't it a fact that some of the chats you found to be fantasies involved cooking women?" defense attorney Robert Baum asked in questioning that was to continue on Thursday.

"It could have been," Walsh answered.

Through the cross-examination, the defense also has sought to remind jurors that no women were ever kidnapped or harmed and that Valle never had contact with his supposed co-conspirators outside the Internet. Also, no evidence of a crime was found in his apartment besides a computer - no rope, pulleys or chemicals to render someone unconscious despite Valle's Internet boasts that he wanted to assemble a torture chamber or that he had an upstate New York property where he could cook women.

Prior to cross examination, Walsh showed jurors graphic X-rated communications between Valle and a butcher in India early last year as they discussed plans to torture and cook Valle's soon-to-be wife and a former college roommate.

"I have longed to butcher and cook female meat," Valle told the man identified as Aly Khan, Walsh said. Khan offered to provide a place in Pakistan to kill the woman once she was brought to India, the agent said.

In an Internet chat read by Walsh, Valle seemed eager to offer the woman he would marry a few months later to Khan, though he added: "She is a sweet girl. I like her a lot. But I will move on."

Valle wrote that he could bring her to India and then Pakistan, where they could gag her in a basement, hang her from her feet and take turns sexually assaulting her before slitting her throat and cooking her.

"I just love the thought of stringing her upside down," Valle wrote in an email shown to jurors. He said he would like "to see her suffer" and "slowly roast her until she dies."